Bahuguna govt tables trust vote, wins it

The Vijay Bahuguna government today won a trust vote in the Uttarakhand Assembly amid a walkout by the opposition BJP members.

Thirty-nine members voted in favour of the trust motion tabled by Bahuguna, Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal informed the House.

Thirty-one members of the main opposition BJP staged a noisy walk-out demanding that secret ballot system should have been used for voting on the motion.

"This is totally unconstitutional that the government did not accept the demand of secret ballot," said Ajay Bhatt, a senior BJP MLA.

All the 31 Congress members besides the 3-member BSP and three independents as well as lone member from the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal voted in favour of the trust motion.

The nominated Anglo-Indian member R V Gardner is among the MLAs who voted in favour of the confidence vote.

Earlier, as soon as the House assembled for the day, Bahuguna tabled the one-line motion, saying he wanted to prove his majority on the floor of the House in view of the opposition demand.

"The members of the opposition have been stating for the past two days that my government does not have majority in the House. This is wrong as we have already proved our majority during the election of the Speaker.

"Still, in line of the healthy tradition of the democracy, I want to table a trust motion on the floor of the House," Bahuguna said.

The Chief Minister also urged the Speaker to order a division of votes.

However, the opposition members were on their feet demanding that secret ballot system be used for voting on the motion. Later, they walked into the well of the House to press for their demand and staged a noisy walk-out.

A physical count of the members voting in favour of the motion was also undertaken by the Speaker.

The opposition BJP members had yesterday disrupted the House proceedings demanding that Bahuguna government should seek trust vote before start of the normal proceedings in the Assembly.